Brothers John and James Abrams, joined by their cousin Elijah, come from Kingston, Ontario. All rather adorable teenagers, they started out very young playing bluegrass music, follow-ing three previous generations of musicians...
Read MoreU-M chemistry professor emeritus Daniel Longone curates the current exhibit at the Clements Library. His knowledgeability and elbow-patched blazer are quintessentially professorial—especially surrounded by the Clements’...
Read MoreIts hard for me to believe the Ann Arbor Antiquarian Book Fair is thirty-one years old this year. Well, actually it is thirty-two years old. Come to think of it, it was born thirty-three years ago. It may be hard to explain...
Read MoreUnder the skillful direction of Ben Cohen, the Vocal Arts Ensemble has grown into a highly respected small choir. Now it’s putting on a multimedia extravaganza at Lydia Mendelssohn Theater on Saturday, May 9.Extravaganza...
Read MoreThe auditorium is lined with rows and rows of cat houses; big, beautiful comfy cat houses. Although this is only one of the many Cat Fanciers pedigreed cat shows held around the country, it’s my first, and I’m...
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During World War II, dozens of Jews skilled in the printing trade were placed in isolated, top-secret barracks within the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. There, under threat of death, they counterfeited British currency worth...
Read MoreIn a fine new John McCutcheon Live DVD recording issued by Ann Arbor’s Bamboo Concerts, the musician diverges almost immediately from his opening numbers into monologues recounting episodes in his education as a folk...
Read MoreWhat is this—a movement?For the second time in the same season, the UMS has hired a very attractive German violinist to perform in town immediately after she released recordings of Bach’s violin concertos. Earlier this...
Read More“I blame Bob Dylan for records like this.” That’s what my friend, Steve, said to me as we listened to Chris Bathgate’s A Cork Tale Wake, released last year. Steve was referring to the inscrutable lyrics...
Read MoreMichigan nonprofits have had it tough for years and have had to find increasingly clever ways to wring money from an increasingly destitute public. Last week, Performance Network, Ann Arbor’s professional theater, in...
Read MoreThere are at least a couple of ways of reading a book of poetry. You can jump around in it, looking for individual gems that move your fancy—or you can read the whole thing from beginning to end, including even the blurbs, the...
Read MoreA hot orange wave catches my eye as I walk into the new exhibit at UMMA. It’s a study for the roof of the Paul Klee Centre in Switzerland. Like most of the buildings featured in this exhibit of 21st-century museum...
Read MoreAlan Black, operations manager for WAAM, bought his first vinyl LP, a Nirvana bootleg, in 1996, five years before he owned a turntable.Black initially saw it as an obscure collector’s item from his favorite band. Now...
Read MoreThe first weekend of April is pay dirt for pagan celebrations. The Hash Bash and the Dance for Mother Earth Ann Arbor Powwow (this year being held at Saline Middle School) have been around since the 1970s, and they were joined...
Read MoreAs the lights came up after the opening dance at a show at the University of Michigan’s Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre, my nine-year-old son—who was my date for the evening—saw tears rolling down my cheeks. “Mom, why are...
Read MoreSeventeen years after Jeff Daniels named a community theater after a Woody Allen film, Allen still contributes money to the Purple Rose—but not a lot.The director of The Purple Rose of Cairo, who gave Daniels a wonderful...
Read MoreWhat if you woke up one morning and realized that you couldn’t stop noticing red pants? You notice them everywhere–that bag lady’s sweats, that kid’s corduroys, that girl’s tight jeans–red...
Read MoreOne of former Ark program director Dave Siglin’s great legacies is the group of strong, often outrageous roots music personalities he brought to the club—a group seldom seen at most other folk and acoustic music venues...
Read MoreBertolt Brecht wrote The Life of Galileo between 1937 and 1939 as a response to Nazi censorship and manipulation of the work of scientists and artists. Among numerous other examples, the Nazis dismissed Einstein’s...
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